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Repeater Dual Band Range Extender Reviews Best Value

Written By Sunday, April 17, 2022 Add Comment Edit

Whether y'all've merely set up a brand-new wireless network in your dwelling or just setting up an office space far from your trusty one-time router, yous may find yourself with terrible signal, wearisome speeds, or no connectedness at all just where you need dependable service. A wi-fi extender is an affordable solution to the problem, letting you lot extend your wireless network where you lot need it without requiring y'all to toss your current router in the trash.

We tested 7 well-regarded wi-fi extenders, and put them to the test in a typical dwelling for several months, assessing range, signal quality, ease of performance and configurability. In the end we found two great affordable options to get you lot the coverage you need, whether you're extending an older Wi-Fi 5 router or you've already upgraded to the latest Wi-Fi half-dozen equipment.

The TP-Link RE605X Wi-Fi range extender

Fundamental Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi vi (AX1800)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (ii.4Ghz): 574 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (5 Ghz): 1,201 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 1x Gigabit
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi

We were diddled away past the performance of TP-Link'southward RE605X, a Wi-Fi half dozen extender that does everything it needs to do without any actress fuss or software bloat. During our testing, it gave us consistent, high performance across xc pct of our benchmarks, and though it wasn't the fastest on every measure out, no other extender we tested could go along up with its overall real-globe operation.

Of all the extenders we tested, the RE605X gave us the best wireless betoken over the longest range. Every other Wi-Fi extender we tested struggled at some point—typically when we switched to a more difficult test that put lots of walls and furniture between the extender and our test laptop. TP-Link'southward RE605X performed great on thisand our easier, well-nigh-line-of-sight test. Different other extenders, at that place was nix about its overall performance that would brand us intermission.

Setting upward the RE605X was simple, thanks to TP-Link'southward built-in wizard (which we accessed using a web browser, though you can likewise employ TP-Link'southward Tether app on your smartphone or tablet to ready the extender.) You can connect the extender with your existing 2.4GHz or 5GHz network, or both if y'all want the extender to auto-select the ideal configuration for you. You're and so prompted to create new SSIDs for its extended ii.4GHz and 5GHz networks. Yous can use the verbal same name as your existing wireless networks if you want, merely we think information technology's better to use different names for each band and so you can manually connect devices (your smart dwelling house gear) that don't demand speed to your two.4GHz network and stick devices that demand extra functioning (your laptop) on a 5GHz network.

As part of the setup process, TP-Link tells you where you should place the device in your home or apartment for best operation. A picayune LED lite on the extender volition light up carmine if it feels the signal from your router is too weak, alerting you to position it closer. This might seem unsophisticated, but in practice it is a lot more convenient than having to load upwardly a wifi scanning app or, worse, trial-and-mistake proper placement on your own.

Bonus features for power users include a schedule manner that lets you automatically ability the extender'due south Wi-Fi networks on and off, an pick to manually shorten the extender's range by varying amounts to avoid interference, admission controls to permit or deny specific devices to access the extender'southward wireless networks, and a simple (merely not automatic) firmware updating process for keeping the extender outfitted with the latest fixes and security updates. You tin can fifty-fifty access the extender when you lot're away from abode via the TP-Link Cloud service, merely it's better for your network security to avoid this feature.

We honey how easy information technology is to switch the RE605X to its access indicate mode. Plug in an Ethernet cable, click on the "Manner" button within the extender's settings, and you'll be able to use a wired backhaul connexion to your existing network and give yourself the best possible speeds for devices connected to your new Wi-Fi networks.

While we wish the RE605X supported three simultaneous wireless connections instead of two, so yous could take a defended wireless backhaul that didn't inhibit the performance of any devices connected to the extender's networks, that'south our just pie-in-the-heaven criticism of the device. For its roughly $100 cost, you won't detect a amend, easier-to-employ wireless extender than TP-Link's RE605X.

The TP-Link RE315 Wi-Fi range extender

Fundamental Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (AC1200)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (2.4Ghz): 300 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (v Ghz): 867 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 1x Fast Ethernet
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi

TP-Link's RE315 is an inexpensive Wi-Fi v wireless extender that lets y'all deploy a simple, speedy-enough Wi-Fi bespeak at a new location. It'south perfect if you are happy with your older router but only need a trivial more range for a particular space (mayhap you fix a home part this past year and haven't been getting a strong enough signal there) and don't plan to drop lots of bandwidth-hungry devices there.

The extender performed very well across all of our tests when nosotros placed information technology in our easier, line-of-sight testing location. When nosotros moved the extender to the harder location, the RE315 ran neck-and-neck against our superlative option in some tests, but it wasn't able to beat information technology across plenty of them—typically half as fast as our primary option when it vicious brusque. We also remember a Wi-Fi 6 extender is a more hereafter-proof device, one that lets you tap into faster speeds, reduces network congestion from multiple connected devices, and generally performs ameliorate in a device-saturated household.

If that'south not you, or you but need a very inexpensive way to deploy an access point to extend your network, the TP-Link RE315 performs slap-up for its price. It has all the fundamental features of our primary pick, including the ability to connect to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands of your existing Wi-Fi network and auto-configure itself to requite your devices the all-time speeds. You can gear up it up as a wirelessor wired access bespeak (fifty-fifty though that'll only exist at Fast Ethernet speeds, or approximately 100Mbps), schedule information technology to turn on or off at set times, control which devices can access the extender, and identify information technology perfectly within your house thanks to a helpful status LED directly on the device.

You tin can find even cheaper extenders than TP-Link's, including the company's own $20 RE220. That $10 makes a world of divergence, though. The RE315 performed very well on our benchmarks for its price; the RE220 didn't take a unmarried proficient score across 16 carve up tests. That's further proof of but how difficult it is to predict performance in the wide world of Wi-Fi.

If yous're not getting adept Wi-Fi coverage around your home, you have four options if y'all're trying to expand your wireless setup: invest in a newer, more powerful router, add a second router, add a wireless extender, or chuck the whole thing and purchase a mesh Wi-Fi organization.

Newer routers can offer a lot more coverage than older or less-powerful routers, but if y'all're otherwise happy with your existing setup (or already have a recent router) it might not brand sense to toss it and start over. Many Wi-Fi issues, however, are a matter of sheer distance, or interference from other devices, or building construction, and then upgrading a unmarried router might non help. This can also be a fairly expensive pick, considering that you're ditching your existing and otherwise perfectly good router.

You could too extend your existing network with a second router. This can connect either over Wi-Fi or equally a wired admission point, as long every bit y'all don't listen stringing Ethernet cable from your primary router to wherever you identify it. While yous salvage a chip past not abandoning your current primary router, this approach may be overkill if you merely need to extend coverage to a single area in your home.

A mesh wireless arrangement—which uses a combination of base and satellite units that work together (generally on a separate Wi-Fi backhaul aqueduct) to give you seamless Wi-Fi around your house or apartment—can allow you overcome some of these issues, so long as you configure them correctly and set them up in the right spots to get around obstacles. The best mesh Wi-Fi kitsalso allow you to connect them with Ethernet cables, instead of a wireless signal. While prices have come down considerably, this is likely more expensive (and at to the lowest degree every bit expensive) every bit replacing your existing setup with a brand-new router.

A Wi-Fi extender is the smallest, least complicated to set up and deal with, and likely the to the lowest degree expensive option. Information technology's a great solution if you accept a single expanse that you lot know is poorly served (a second-flooring role or bedroom across the house from the main router location, for example)

No matter what y'all end upwardly getting, brand sure you lot install it and examination it out to make certain that information technology gives y'all the best combination of coverage and speed. All homes and apartments accept their quirks, and what works well for 1 layout might differ (for improve or worse) in your specific setup.

All wireless extenders are designed to give your existing Wi-Fi setup a much-needed range heave. Yet, extenders come in all shapes and sizes, differentiated by descriptive numbers like "AC1200," "Wi-Fi 6," or "802.11ax" that indicate a device'spotentialspeed, merely never tell the full story.

It's easy to pick an extender thatcould give you better speed and range than others, based on the Wi-Fi technologies and protocols information technology supports. Merely the numbers you see on the box don't tell the whole story. Even Wi-Fi extenders with identical specs tin have wildly different performance, and that's where we come in. Nosotros've done the testing to assistance you figure out which Wi-Fi extenders are going to give yous the very all-time performance at the longest range.

All the Wi-Fi extenders we're looking at can all latch onto your existing Wi-Fi setup and extend a new Wi-Fi "bubble" from wherever you identify them. A bang-up Wi-Fi extender can also function every bit a wired access signal—you lot connect it to your principal router with Ethernet cable, not wirelessly, to go the fastest potential speeds for devices continued to your extended wireless network. This will always be the best option for performance instead of using a wireless connection equally the "backhaul," equally information technology'southward known, but non every extender supports this kind of a setup.

A wired prepare-upward is absolutely the best way to get the fastest speeds from whatsoever access points—a router, an extender, or a mesh node—that you've placed effectually your house. Otherwise, what you end up getting depends on how convenient of a solution you desire and how much you're willing to pay. However, it can be challenging to run cable over long distances, and if you rent or but aren't comfortable drilling and fishing wire through walls, it might not be a existent option for you.

We focused our initial research on Wi-Fi 6 extenders, since the best possible extender you can purchase is 1 that volition support the latest and greatest connectedness standards. However, if price is a concern, and you lot don't have a Wi-Fi six router (and indeed we suspect many of y'all may exist trying to get some more than life out of an older router), then a simpler Wi-Fi 5 extender like TP-Link'south RE315 should be sufficient, and so we tested a few of those too.

We prioritized performance and tried to keep our cost at $100 or lower whenever possible; go substantially higher, and you lot're better off upgrading your primary router, buying a second router and turning it into an access point, or investing in a mesh system, rather than a more than limited, single wireless extender.

For our testing, nosotros placed each extender in one of two locations at the far side of a unmarried-story firm: one location, the "easy" examination, was approximately 45 feet abroad from our examination laptop. Five walls and a closet separated the extender from the client laptop if you lot were to describe a direct line betwixt the two. Even so, our client laptop's room was directly connected to the extender'southward room by a large hallway, nearly a direct line of sight betwixt the 2 exam points.

On the "harder" version of the test, nosotros placed the extender fifteen feet to the east in a nearby bathroom. This added more walls and a full room between the extender and the examination laptop, and their rooms were no longer directly viewable from each other. This was likewise the maximum distance we could carve up the extender from the test laptop within the house. Yous're bound to become decent performance near an extender; nosotros wanted to come across how well they would fare in challenging, distant weather.

D-Link DAP-X1870 ($115.99, amazon.com )

Fundamental Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi vi (AX1800)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (two.4Ghz): 574 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (5 Ghz): ane,201 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 1x Gigabit
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, unmarried-ring Wi-Fi

D-Link'south DAP-X1870 Wi-Fi 6 extender performed incredibly well on our easier suite of tests, near matching (and in i case, chirapsia) our finalist on viii measurements. However, its performance on our harder tests was a big reversal. The extender delivered adequate results, as it roughshod out of the top extenders on one-half of the eight tests. Nosotros're unable to recommend it as our main pick as a outcome of these drops—particularly since it pricemore than TP-Link'southward RE605X at the time of our review.

We beloved that you can ready up the DAP-X1870 as a wired or wireless admission point, and its settings page is the simplest of whatever extender we tested. Even so, the extender only connects to a single band at a time from your router, unlike competing extenders that yous tin can gear up on 2.4GHz and 5GHz and let them selection which delivers the best performance for continued devices. In practise, nosotros call back it's better to force a transmission connection if you know what you're doing, but less-savvy users who only desire to get their extenders up-and-running would benefit from the actress flexibility of a dual-band wireless backhaul (or at least, the pick to try it out).

That said, D-Link's Wi-Fi extender tin can automatically bank check for and install new firmware updates, which is a feature every Internet-connected router or extender should have, catamenia. Nosotros also think it's great that, out of the box, the DAP-X1870 comes built with security in listen. While it's a little annoying to chase around for the password to the extender'south default Wi-Fi network, that's a more secure setup than other extenders that simply default to an open network when yous plug them in.

We'd recommend giving the DAP-X1870 a shot if you don't listen spending a little more and you thoroughly vet it to make sure it delivers the performance you demand in your abode. Its speeds and simplicitycanexist great, but it's potential isn't as practiced as other extenders we tested.

Netgear EAX20 ($94.66, originally $129.99; amazon.com )

Fundamental Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (AX1800)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (2.4Ghz): 574 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (v Ghz): one,201 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 4x Gigabit
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi

Netgear'southward EAX20 is huge—easily rivaling, if not dwarfing, your existing cable modem or router. And while we were impressed with this beefy extender's performance on our easier suite of tests, where it sat amid the very superlative extenders nosotros tested on seven of our viii measurements, the extender didn't perform as well on our harder tests. It was outpaced by other extenders on one-half of our eight tests, not a great showing given the EAX20's typical $130 price.

We saw the extender continue sale for around $70-80 during our testing, but we still wouldn't recommend it over our principal pick for 1, simple reason: It'southward way too big. This extender only makes sense if you need to provide a network connection to a bunch of devices at once, like a faraway home entertainment middle that can make the best use of the EAX20's four Gigabit Ethernet ports. Otherwise, this is a completely impractical extender for most people. We'd much rather be able to plug a small, unobtrusive device into a wall socket than have some large, bulky extender sitting on a table, a shelf, or the blank floor.

That said, we appreciated how easy it was to prepare upwardly the extender as a wired or wireless access point. Netgear's configuration menu is elementary to navigate, and we love the EAX20's auto-updating functionality, access controls and ability scheduling, and back up for guest networks. While there's no physical LED to let you know if you placed the extender the right distance from your router, the primary screen within the extender's settings offers helpful suggestions.

Netgear EX7500 ($162.40; walmart.com )

Key Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (AC2200; tri-band)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (2.4Ghz): 400 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (v Ghz): one,732 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: None
  • Supported backhaul connections: Dual-band Wi-Fi

We fabricated an exception to our pick criteria to examination Netgear's EX7500, a Wi-Fi five extender with a special twist: equally a tri-band device, it can connect back to your router on i 5GHz connectedness while simultaneously outputting its own separate ii.4GHz and 5GHz networks. This, in theory, allows you lot to avoid the performance punishment that occurs when an extender has to transmit back and forth to 1'south primary router on the exact same radio that's sending and receiving data to connected devices.

Unfortunately, the EX7500 is pretty tiresome. Its speeds were poor across most of our testing, and nosotros couldn't fifty-fifty connect to its 5GHz network across two of our 8 "difficult" tests. Nosotros disliked its poor range, poor performance, and the fact that yous're stuck using it wirelessly, as it doesn't have any physical Ethernet ports for setting upward the extender as a wired admission signal. Tri-band, in theory, is a not bad way to get fast speeds out of a wireless extender. But every bit our testing showed, you can't only pick an extender based on the technologies it supports; a powerful wireless backhaul to your router isn't very helpful when an extender can't produce the same kind of performance at range as its peers.

Linksys RE7350 ($109.23; walmart.com )

Fundamental Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (AX1800)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (ii.4Ghz): 574 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (5 Ghz): 1,201 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 1x Gigabit
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, dual-ring Wi-Fi

LInksys' RE7350 Wi-Fi extender feels great to configure. It has all the settings we'd ask for, including the ability to part every bit a wireless or wired access indicate, dual-band connectivity back to your master router, an automated "Cross Band" mode that seeks to give connected devices the best possible performance, and even a graphical "Spot Finder" section of its settings that helps yous place the extender in the perfect spot. You lot can fifty-fifty have the extender automatically update itself with the latest security fixes and upgrades, which we love.

Unfortunately, the RE7350 couldn't hack information technology beyond our sixteen unlike Wi-Fi tests. Its boilerplate-too-low performance didn't impress usa, especially when our main pick delivered anywhere from twice to almost 12-times the functioning across our harder tests for roughly the aforementioned cost. Linksys' extender is keen on paper, but isn't fast enough at a far-enough range to rival improve extenders we tested.

TP-Link RE220 ($24.99, originally $34.99; amazon.com )

Central Specs

  • Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (AC750)
  • Maximum theoretical speed (ii.4Ghz): 300 Mbps
  • Maximum theoretical speed (five Ghz): 433 Mbps
  • Ethernet Ports: 1x Fast Ethernet
  • Supported backhaul connections: Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi

Nosotros weren't expecting miracles when we decided to test TP-Link's RE220 Wi-Fi extender, given it'southward a $xx device using slower Wi-Fi 5 technology that'due south basically designed to only give you a quick and piece of cake extended network, period. This extender performed the worst of the vii wireless extenders nosotros tested, and was unable to fifty-fifty come close to ameliorate-performing extenders on whatsoever of our sixteen tests (easy or hard). It'south outmatched by TP-Link'southward ain RE315 Wi-Fi extender, which costs slightly more but delivers considerably better performance for a upkeep device.

Nosotros're glad to see this upshot, though, because information technology gives us a adventure to emphasize how important information technology is to research new networking equipment you're looking to purchase. You can't assume that a device is going to have slap-up performance considering it was built by a particular manufacturer. A TP-Link extender might be our principal pick, but that doesn't hateful thatall TP-Link extenders are going to deliver bang-up performance and range. The brand is irrelevant; as we've shown, y'all can accept wildly different performance across a number of devices, price points, and manufacturers, fifty-fifty thesamemanufacturer.

Read more than from CNN Underscored's hands-on testing
  • The best mesh Wi-Fi routers
  • Mesh routers versus traditional routers
  • The all-time laptops

schenkdommand.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-wifi-range-extender

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